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Dramatis Personae
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/ Home / Library / Complete Shakespeare / The Merchant of Venice / Act III Scene II
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The Merchant of Venice: Act 3 Scene 2
Scene II Belmont. A room in PORTIA'S house.
- [Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA, and
- Attendants]
- PORTIA
- I pray you, tarry: pause a day or two
- Before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong,
- I lose your company: therefore forbear awhile.
- There's something tells me, but it is not love,
- I would not lose you; and you know yourself,
- Hate counsels not in such a quality.
- But lest you should not understand me well,--
- And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought,--
- I would detain you here some month or two
- Before you venture for me. I could teach you
- How to choose right, but I am then forsworn;
- So will I never be: so may you miss me;
- But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin,
- That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes,
- They have o'erlook'd me and divided me;
- One half of me is yours, the other half yours,
- Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
- And so all yours. O, these naughty times
- Put bars between the owners and their rights!
- And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so,
- Let fortune go to hell for it, not I.
- I speak too long; but 'tis to peize the time,
- To eke it and to draw it out in length,
- To stay you from election.
- BASSANIO
- Let me choose
- For as I am, I live upon the rack.
- PORTIA
- Upon the rack, Bassanio! then confess
- What treason there is mingled with your love.
- BASSANIO
- None but that ugly treason of mistrust,
- Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love:
- There may as well be amity and life
- 'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love.
- PORTIA
- Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack,
- Where men enforced do speak anything.
- BASSANIO
- Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.
- PORTIA
- Well then, confess and live.
- BASSANIO
- 'Confess' and 'love'
- Had been the very sum of my confession:
- O happy torment, when my torturer
- Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
- But let me to my fortune and the caskets.
- PORTIA
- Away, then! I am lock'd in one of them:
- If you do love me, you will find me out.
- Nerissa and the rest, stand all aloof.
- Let music sound while he doth make his choice;
- Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
- Fading in music: that the comparison
- May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream
- And watery death-bed for him. He may win;
- And what is music then? Then music is
- Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
- To a new-crowned monarch: such it is
- As are those dulcet sounds in break of day
- That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear,
- And summon him to marriage. Now he goes,
- With no less presence, but with much more love,
- Than young Alcides, when he did redeem
- The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
- To the sea-monster: I stand for sacrifice
- The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
- With bleared visages, come forth to view
- The issue of the exploit. Go, Hercules!
- Live thou, I live: with much, much more dismay
- I view the fight than thou that makest the fray.
- [Music, whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to himself]
- SONG.
- Tell me where is fancy bred,
- Or in the heart, or in the head?
- How begot, how nourished?
- Reply, reply.
- It is engender'd in the eyes,
- With gazing fed; and fancy dies
- In the cradle where it lies.
- Let us all ring fancy's knell
- I'll begin it,--Ding, dong, bell.
- ALL
- Ding, dong, bell.
- BASSANIO
- So may the outward shows be least themselves:
- The world is still deceived with ornament.
- In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt,
- But, being seasoned with a gracious voice,
- Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
- What damned error, but some sober brow
- Will bless it and approve it with a text,
- Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
- There is no vice so simple but assumes
- Some mark of virtue on his outward parts:
- How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
- As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
- The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars;
- Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk;
- And these assume but valour's excrement
- To render them redoubted! Look on beauty,
- And you shall see 'tis purchased by the weight;
- Which therein works a miracle in nature,
- Making them lightest that wear most of it:
- So are those crisped snaky golden locks
- Which make such wanton gambols with the wind,
- Upon supposed fairness, often known
- To be the dowry of a second head,
- The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.
- Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
- To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
- Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
- The seeming truth which cunning times put on
- To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold,
- Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee;
- Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
- 'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead,
- Which rather threatenest than dost promise aught,
- Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence;
- And here choose I; joy be the consequence!
- PORTIA
- [Aside] How all the other passions fleet to air,
- As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embraced despair,
- And shuddering fear, and green-eyed jealousy! O love,
- Be moderate; allay thy ecstasy,
- In measure rein thy joy; scant this excess.
- I feel too much thy blessing: make it less,
- For fear I surfeit.
- BASSANIO
- What find I here?
- [Opening the leaden casket]
- Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god
- Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?
- Or whether, riding on the balls of mine,
- Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,
- Parted with sugar breath: so sweet a bar
- Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs
- The painter plays the spider and hath woven
- A golden mesh to entrap the hearts of men,
- Faster than gnats in cobwebs; but her eyes,--
- How could he see to do them? having made one,
- Methinks it should have power to steal both his
- And leave itself unfurnish'd. Yet look, how far
- The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow
- In underprizing it, so far this shadow
- Doth limp behind the substance. Here's the scroll,
- The continent and summary of my fortune.
- [Reads]
- You that choose not by the view,
- Chance as fair and choose as true!
- Since this fortune falls to you,
- Be content and seek no new,
- If you be well pleased with this
- And hold your fortune for your bliss,
- Turn you where your lady is
- And claim her with a loving kiss.
- A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave;
- I come by note, to give and to receive.
- Like one of two contending in a prize,
- That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes,
- Hearing applause and universal shout,
- Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt
- Whether these pearls of praise be his or no;
- So, thrice fair lady, stand I, even so;
- As doubtful whether what I see be true,
- Until confirm'd, sign'd, ratified by you.
- PORTIA
- You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand,
- Such as I am: though for myself alone
- I would not be ambitious in my wish,
- To wish myself much better; yet, for you
- I would be trebled twenty times myself;
- A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich;
- That only to stand high in your account,
- I might in virtue, beauties, livings, friends,
- Exceed account; but the full sum of me
- Is sum of something, which, to term in gross,
- Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractised;
- Happy in this, she is not yet so old
- But she may learn; happier than this,
- She is not bred so dull but she can learn;
- Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit
- Commits itself to yours to be directed,
- As from her lord, her governor, her king.
- Myself and what is mine to you and yours
- Is now converted: but now I was the lord
- Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
- Queen o'er myself: and even now, but now,
- This house, these servants and this same myself
- Are yours, my lord: I give them with this ring;
- Which when you part from, lose, or give away,
- Let it presage the ruin of your love
- And be my vantage to exclaim on you.
- BASSANIO
- Madam, you have bereft me of all words,
- Only my blood speaks to you in my veins;
- And there is such confusion in my powers,
- As after some oration fairly spoke
- By a beloved prince, there doth appear
- Among the buzzing pleased multitude;
- Where every something, being blent together,
- Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy,
- Express'd and not express'd. But when this ring
- Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence:
- O, then be bold to say Bassanio's dead!
- NERISSA
- My lord and lady, it is now our time,
- That have stood by and seen our wishes prosper,
- To cry, good joy: good joy, my lord and lady!
- GRATIANO
- My lord Bassanio and my gentle lady,
- I wish you all the joy that you can wish;
- For I am sure you can wish none from me:
- And when your honours mean to solemnize
- The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you,
- Even at that time I may be married too.
- BASSANIO
- With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife.
- GRATIANO
- I thank your lordship, you have got me one.
- My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours:
- You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid;
- You loved, I loved for intermission.
- No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.
- Your fortune stood upon the casket there,
- And so did mine too, as the matter falls;
- For wooing here until I sweat again,
- And sweating until my very roof was dry
- With oaths of love, at last, if promise last,
- I got a promise of this fair one here
- To have her love, provided that your fortune
- Achieved her mistress.
- PORTIA
- Is this true, Nerissa?
- NERISSA
- Madam, it is, so you stand pleased withal.
- BASSANIO
- And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?
- GRATIANO
- Yes, faith, my lord.
- BASSANIO
- Our feast shall be much honour'd in your marriage.
- GRATIANO
- We'll play with them the first boy for a thousand ducats.
- NERISSA
- What, and stake down?
- GRATIANO
- No; we shall ne'er win at that sport, and stake down.
- But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel? What,
- and my old Venetian friend Salerio?
- [Enter LORENZO, JESSICA, and SALERIO, a Messenger
- from Venice]
- BASSANIO
- Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither;
- If that the youth of my new interest here
- Have power to bid you welcome. By your leave,
- I bid my very friends and countrymen,
- Sweet Portia, welcome.
- PORTIA
- So do I, my lord:
- They are entirely welcome.
- LORENZO
- I thank your honour. For my part, my lord,
- My purpose was not to have seen you here;
- But meeting with Salerio by the way,
- He did entreat me, past all saying nay,
- To come with him along.
- SALERIO
- I did, my lord;
- And I have reason for it. Signior Antonio
- Commends him to you.
- [Gives Bassanio a letter]
- BASSANIO
- Ere I ope his letter,
- I pray you, tell me how my good friend doth.
- SALERIO
- Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind;
- Nor well, unless in mind: his letter there
- Will show you his estate.
- GRATIANO
- Nerissa, cheer yon stranger; bid her welcome.
- Your hand, Salerio: what's the news from Venice?
- How doth that royal merchant, good Antonio?
- I know he will be glad of our success;
- We are the Jasons, we have won the fleece.
- SALERIO
- I would you had won the fleece that he hath lost.
- PORTIA
- There are some shrewd contents in yon same paper,
- That steals the colour from Bassanio's cheek:
- Some dear friend dead; else nothing in the world
- Could turn so much the constitution
- Of any constant man. What, worse and worse!
- With leave, Bassanio: I am half yourself,
- And I must freely have the half of anything
- That this same paper brings you.
- BASSANIO
- O sweet Portia,
- Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words
- That ever blotted paper! Gentle lady,
- When I did first impart my love to you,
- I freely told you, all the wealth I had
- Ran in my veins, I was a gentleman;
- And then I told you true: and yet, dear lady,
- Rating myself at nothing, you shall see
- How much I was a braggart. When I told you
- My state was nothing, I should then have told you
- That I was worse than nothing; for, indeed,
- I have engaged myself to a dear friend,
- Engaged my friend to his mere enemy,
- To feed my means. Here is a letter, lady;
- The paper as the body of my friend,
- And every word in it a gaping wound,
- Issuing life-blood. But is it true, Salerio?
- Have all his ventures fail'd? What, not one hit?
- From Tripolis, from Mexico and England,
- From Lisbon, Barbary and India?
- And not one vessel 'scape the dreadful touch
- Of merchant-marring rocks?
- SALERIO
- Not one, my lord.
- Besides, it should appear, that if he had
- The present money to discharge the Jew,
- He would not take it. Never did I know
- A creature, that did bear the shape of man,
- So keen and greedy to confound a man:
- He plies the duke at morning and at night,
- And doth impeach the freedom of the state,
- If they deny him justice: twenty merchants,
- The duke himself, and the magnificoes
- Of greatest port, have all persuaded with him;
- But none can drive him from the envious plea
- Of forfeiture, of justice and his bond.
- JESSICA
- When I was with him I have heard him swear
- To Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen,
- That he would rather have Antonio's flesh
- Than twenty times the value of the sum
- That he did owe him: and I know, my lord,
- If law, authority and power deny not,
- It will go hard with poor Antonio.
- PORTIA
- Is it your dear friend that is thus in trouble?
- BASSANIO
- The dearest friend to me, the kindest man,
- The best-condition'd and unwearied spirit
- In doing courtesies, and one in whom
- The ancient Roman honour more appears
- Than any that draws breath in Italy.
- PORTIA
- What sum owes he the Jew?
- BASSANIO
- For me three thousand ducats.
- PORTIA
- What, no more?
- Pay him six thousand, and deface the bond;
- Double six thousand, and then treble that,
- Before a friend of this description
- Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault.
- First go with me to church and call me wife,
- And then away to Venice to your friend;
- For never shall you lie by Portia's side
- With an unquiet soul. You shall have gold
- To pay the petty debt twenty times over:
- When it is paid, bring your true friend along.
- My maid Nerissa and myself meantime
- Will live as maids and widows. Come, away!
- For you shall hence upon your wedding-day:
- Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer:
- Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear.
- But let me hear the letter of your friend.
- BASSANIO
- [Reads] Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all
- miscarried, my creditors grow cruel, my estate is
- very low, my bond to the Jew is forfeit; and since
- in paying it, it is impossible I should live, all
- debts are cleared between you and I, if I might but
- see you at my death. Notwithstanding, use your
- pleasure: if your love do not persuade you to come,
- let not my letter.
- PORTIA
- O love, dispatch all business, and be gone!
- BASSANIO
- Since I have your good leave to go away,
- I will make haste: but, till I come again,
- No bed shall e'er be guilty of my stay,
- No rest be interposer 'twixt us twain.
- [Exeunt]
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